tizish.com

The SEO Manual-Tizish’ Online Agent Manual

What Is the SEO Manual?

This manual (pictured above) was created for real estate agents who want to create a viable online business. It is officially titled Lead Generation Black Book Volume 1 and it is filled with  information beginning with 11 principles you must understand about internet home buyers, what stealth websites are, and techniques on getting your blog Search Engine Optimized (i.e. positioning your blog to be found easier and placed higher on the internet).

Who is it for?

Any real estate agent that wants to begin or improve their online real estate business. All tizish clients will have access to download this manual. As of now, we are making a couple changes (mostly corrections in spelling or missed apostrophes and the like).  So as soon as it is ready to be downloaded we’ll let you all know.

Any agent who is using the internet as a source for lead generation has to have one of these and more importantly, implement the techniques.

The Goal Of The Book

The goal is to teach you the basics as well as some advanced techniques on how to optimize your agent website/blog and get the ball rolling for. Once the ball is rolling you will want to remain consistent and committed. This is the most important aspect of all, that you remain consistent and do not lag or get lazy. This market doesn’t and will not reward the lazy. Follow the advise and you’ll have the internet side of your real estate business viable and under control.

Enjoy your day.

Out of Town Tizish

Hey everyone we’ll be out of town this week attending the Tom Ferry - Your Coach seminar in In Palm Springs, CA. Josh will be presenting for 1 hour and half on Thursday about internet marketing.  Plus, some of people will be getting our SEO manual.

For those of you going I hope to see you there.

If there are any questions just send us an email.

Coverting Your Lead The Easy Way

*picture source: The Accidental Salesman by Richard White

Don’t Think, Let Them Tell You

So you have a lead and think they are really motivated. What should you do? To some of you it may sound counter-intuitive but let the buyer tell you they are ready to buy.

Thinking you have a motivated buyer in your midst is exciting and nerve racking. On one hand you think, “this is mine”, on the other, “Oh, I don’t want to scare them away”. In order to convert that lead to work with you, you will have to learn to hold back and wait for their invitation.

An Invitation

I can hear it now, “but if they signed up they are motivated and they left me there phone number, so obviously they want to work with me.” No they don’t, they just want to see homes. Remember, on the internet the buyer wants to be (or at least feel) in control. Even if they left you their phone number that doesn’t mean that you are allowed to call them. You have to wait for their invitation. If they want you to contact them they will say so.

Indirectly Selling Is Key

This is where you bring the lead in. The indirect approach is the process where over a period of time and through email follow-up, you give them what the homebuyer what they want; homes and answered questions, accompanied by drip emails.

During this time you never, ever, ever, ask them to do business with you directly. Your job is to answer their questions and ask them if they would like anything else. YOU ALWAYS ASK FOR PERMISSION. You have to “kill ‘em with kindness” - indirectly building an online relationship and slowly positioning yourself to be their de facto agent.

When the time comes, sometimes a few days to a few months, assuming you have done exactly what you’re supposed to do, they will ask YOU to view a home either by email or if you have a Tizish site, via your IDX appointment feature.

Don’t be “that agent”

Nobody likes a pushy agent, especially an internet homebuyer. No matter how tempting it may be to be aggressive, always opt for the online soft sell.

Have a good one!

*Picture was take from a post by the illustrator simonnelli at http://caricaturelondon.wordpress.com/2008/01/04/cartoons-for-salesmen/

Topic Tuesday Again!

Here are some ideas to get your brains going for today (or the week).

1.  Give Tips on Negotiating a Real Estate Agents Commission/fee.

2.  Write about whether you think interest rates will head…up or down? Then explain why and relate it to how it will affect them.

3.  If I were a buyer and I asked you “hey agent, should I buy a home now or later?” How would you reply? Write about how you would answer that question.

4.  Blog about the home in your area that has been on the market for very long and why that is the case.

5.  Write about an experience you had in real estate that taught you something very important about how to work with a buyer/seller.
Well there you have it. Now give your fingers some exercise and get those keyboards clinking!

DO NOT Let Your Leads Slip Away…Put ‘em On A Drip System Today!

I’ve talked to several agents who told me that they do not completely follow-up with their internet leads! Most say it is too much work (which can be true unless you have some type of automatic system).

AGENTS REMEMBER…

There are two ways to stay in contact with your leads.  Take advantage of both, simultaneously. Below are THE two important ways to do so.

2 Ways Follow-up On Internet Leads

1.  Automatic Email Updates - Your IDX should have this feature with optimal branding of yourself in the appropriate places.

2.  Drip Email Follow-up - This I’d say is the most important of all because internet home buyers take an average of 6 months to actually convert.  You must have a system in place where you can stay in front of their eyes without being intrusive.

Drip email systems can be found anywhere. We recommend Top Producer (because that is what we’re familiar with) but last I heard, Microsoft Outlook Express had a drip campaign feature, though I’m not 100% sure about that.

It is important to understand that if you have somebody sign up to your site there is interest. They liked what they saw and want more information, in the form of homes that match their criteria.

Agents do not rely on only one avenue of follow-up. Use the drip email for extra leverage.

Have a great day!

Topic Tuesday Is Here

Hey all, here are some topics you can write about in your blog. Enjoy!

- House prices - Will they be going down? Up? Write about whether you think they may want to wait or why they should buy now.

- Banking System - If you want to help people understand why these economic cycles occur you can write about how the banking system functions (i.e. fractional lending and all that good stuff).

- Media Reports - Write an opinion piece about the media. Are they fanning flames? Are they under reporting? Should they?

- Write about selling a home in today’s market. What needs to be done, tips/advice, a top ten list of do’s and don’ts.

- The weeding out of agents in this market. Good or bad for the consumer? Did more agents mean commissions could be negotiated lower for the consumer? You can write about how only quality remains or will continue to remain.

You can also write about something you read in the news and then show why the article was important to the reader. And there you go…now get to blogging.

Have a good one.

Cuil New Search Engine: Must Try.

The name is Cuil, pronounced “cool”. A new search engine that debuted today for the world to use and boasts they have indexed 120 billion webpages.

Created by former employees of Google the site has some features that make it stand out from Google and hope to attract a piece of their market share.

After checking it out for myself and searching things for a bit. I’ve come up with a short list of pros and cons.

Pros:

1. The lay-out - All search inquiries are displayed in with a magazine style format. It allows you to read a brief description of the page to see if you want to go read the rest. The look is very clean and easy to follow.

2. Thumbnail - For you visual people search inquiries now come with a thumbnail of the site.

3. New Search Technology - Attempts to understand more about the information on a page and the terms people use to search as opposed to Googles method of looking at quality links. In other words, their search algorithm can understand context of a page as well as concepts of search inquiries (which can be seen in the gray bar at the top of the page).

Translation: search results are more precise to what you are looking for.

4. Privacy - (best of all) They do not retain information of people’s searches. Anyone who is big on privacy rights will love this feature.

5. No Advertising - There is no advertising on the top or the sides. Of course this is for now and it’d be a good bet they’ll eventually have advertising.

Cons:

1. Thumbnail mismatch - It’s only happened a couple of times with me but sometimes the thumbnail you see may not match the page. This is a minor thing I’m sure they’ll easily tweak.

2. Pure Search - Unlike Google, there are no “Google Maps” for directions (a feature I use many times over), no button for “image search”, “Google News” and so forth.

For many people who are accustomed to Google a switch to a new SE may not be worth the time. Google has entrenched itself so deep into the our computer lives that it would be too bothersome or unfamiliar to go to another site, much like how many people would never use Mozilla over Internet Explorer.

The final verdict: Guilty of being pretty “Cuil” and useful. I will be giving it a try for a bit to see how it fares off against Google. Whether they join the long list of search engines that have fallen to Goliath Google or whether they become a competitor, it’s always nice to try something new.

Don’t take my word for it, try it out for yourself!

Topics To Talk About

Hey all, here are a couple ideas for topics you can post about.

1.  Friday, the 25th of July, had 2 banks taken over by the FDIC. One was First National Bank of Nevada and the other was First Heritage N.A. in Newport Beach.  If you work in or near the area you can talk about it as a news alert or as a way to explain to people what is going on and how it relates to real estate and them.

2.  Renting vs. Buying. You can write a topic about the pros and cons (where ever you stand). Explain how it would or wouldn’t benefit them to rent right now.

3.  Foreclosures and REOs. You can write an article on what they are, why they are here, the process, etc. You can go on many topics about these. Anywhere from “understanding REO’s” to “how to find REO’s”.

Remember posts don’t have to be pages long. What is important is that you get your point across and make sense.
Have a good one.

Internet Marketing Book Coming Soon To An Agent Near You

And then there was peace. We justed finished putting together an SEO packet that we’ll be unveiling at the Tom Ferry seminar in August. All clients of Tizish will be able to download it online for free.

The book/manual was written for people who know nothing about stealth sites, blogs, and SEO. However, it does go in-depth in strategies, like linking, as well as lists of websites that are beneficial for agents to take advantage of.

We may have to make a second edition since there were lots of things we left out. Well, that and the fact that some techniques may one day become obsolete…gotta keep up with the tech stuff.

Josh and I am going to brain storm some names for it. We have a couple tentative names but nothing that satisfies. We’ll keep you updated.

Have a good one.

Curious About Where Your Bank Is Rated?

Here’s another thing can use, provide your real estate clients, or blog about.

Bankrate.com has it so that you can find your bank and see how they rate on a scale of 1 (the best) to 5 (the worst).

With all the bank news going on in the media this can be useful for some people. Enjoy! http://www.bankrate.com/brm/safesound/ss_home.asp